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Friday, 23 September 2011

Healthier Banana Bread

Ah, banana bread, I made banana bread a lot when we were vegetarian and I had it a lot growing up omni too. My mom made it quite often and it was always one of my favourites. After all, is there anything better than the smell of banana bread baking?? Since turning vegan however I haven't found the perfect recipe. I tried veganizing my moms and trying others and I find they all taste great but the texture is too dense and not 'banana bread' like. I once again had a glut of really ripe bananas to use and thought I would try something different altogether, a healthier banana bread. After all, nothing else has been working and why not? One thing that always annoyed me about banana bread is how high in calories one simple slice was.

So, I devised this one - it is sweetened only with the minimum amount of maple syrup, barring the optional sprinkle of demerara sugar on top, and the fat has been drastically cut back by only using 2 Tbsp of the much healthier organic coconut oil. I also increased the bananas for sweetness and texture and swapped some of the white flour with wholemeal, in keeping with the healthier tag of course ;-)

I gotta admit I did not have high hopes for this, as anyone who reads this blogs knows - I love my sugar. In fact I un-apologetically love my sugar. And anyone who follows me on twitter will know I was ready to eat this with a bottle of maple syrup at my side. Well, as you can guess as it's being blogged it was bloody fantastic! Out of all the vegan banana breads I have made this one was hands down my favourite, and with about half the calories! Unlike the usual moist bricks I get this one had a really nice texture which I hope comes out in the photos here and it tasted great, just sweet enough although I would consider the demerara sugar topping there essential ;-)

So, there you go, a great tasting fantastic textured banana bread that just happens to be better for you to boot! Win-win!!

Oh yeah, it's also another huge hit with my son who was having a slice at breakfast and a slice after school!

:-)

**Edit - just made this again (as it's my new favourite banana bread recipe) but was out of a few ingredients. So, FYI -It also works really well with melted vegan butter in place of the coconut oil and the brown sugar syrup from my Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Granola recipe in place of the maple syrup (I used 80ml instead of 60ml) I was also a little short of the 400g of bananas but it turned out just as good with the same great texture :-) **

Healthier Banana Bread:

140g plain flour

140g wholemeal flour

60ml maple syrup (1/4 cup or 4 Tbsp)

1 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

75ml rice milk

400g really ripe bananas, mashed

1/4 tsp salt

2 Tbsp organic coconut oil, melted

1 tsp vanilla

optional - 1 Tbsp demerara sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C and line the bottom of a loaf tin with baking paper, spray the sides with cooking spray. In a large bowl mix together the flours, cinnamon, salt, baking powder and baking soda. In another bowl whisk together the mashed banana, maple syrup, coconut oil, rice milk and vanilla. Add this to the flour mixture, mixing and folding with a rubber spatula until just mixed, do not over mix.

Scrape into the prepared loaf tin and sprinkle the demerara sugar over top, if using. Pop in the oven and bake for 45min - 1 hour until golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Leave in the tin to cool for 10 minutes then remove and leave on a wire rack to fully cool.

9 comments:

Funnily enough, I just baked banana bread and then came on your blog to see this latest post. I added nutmeg to my recipe, because, well, I'm obsessed with it. :) I also used vegan butter and brown sugar syrup in my recipe.

May I just say that I LOVE this blog. Whenever my friends say to me "You're vegan? How? What do you eat?" I just email them a link to this blog. My boy friend used to complain that he didn't know what to cook whenever we eat meals together, but I sent him this link, and he's been experimenting. He's Spanish, and pork, in his opinion, was God's gift to man.

Oh wow, thanks so much Gamali! Yes, we do get the "what on earth do you eat!?!" question a LOT don't we? I just tell them to go to my blog too ;-) I hope you and your boyfriend find some things you like here ♥

Hi! I don't see why not, wheat and spelt seem to be somewhat interchangeable. That being said I've never baked with spelt before so can't really say how it would fare here. From what I've read it may be heavier though. Best to just give it a go and see! :-)